The Blog of Xbolt

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem is a visual representation of Daft Punk’s album, Discovery.

If you don’t know about Daft Punk, they are a French electronic music duo. They are responsible for “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”, which you have already heard, provided you know your Internets. They were also hired to do the soundtrack for the new Tron movie coming out in December.

So, being a fan of electronic music, and Daft Punk being kings in the world of electronic music, it would be a crime for me to not watch this movie.

Interstella 5555 tells the story of a popular alien band, that is kidnapped by an evil record company executive in order to make his label the biggest. Their memories are erased, their skin color changed, and they become “The Crescendolls”, Earth’s newest pop stars. Meanwhile, Shep, a fan of theirs from their home planet, sets out to rescue them.

The visuals are top-notch. The music obviously is as well. There’s no spoken dialogue in the film, and minimal sound effects. The music carries the whole thing. Despite that, the characters come across amazingly well. When was the last time you cared about characters in an MTV music video, huh?

Is Interstella 5555 cool? You bet it is.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Embedding disabled by request

Though my favorite part of the movie is Veridis Quo, that’s real late in the movie, and as such, it wouldn’t be my style to post it. So here’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

Deus Fortress: The Conspiracy

I played Deus Ex other week. And I say it’s one of the finest games ever made. DX just turned ten two months ago, and it still holds its place as one of the pinnacles of PC gaming. They really don’t make them like they used to.

And then, last week, this epic TF2 version of the intro scene pops up. Right after I play it. Coincidence? I think NOT!

I SPILL MY DRINK in awe of this video. What a shame. It was a good drink. What a rotten way to spill.

Owariyuku Sekai to, Saigono Bokura

Good song, with an epic-looking PV.

In other news, Mozaik Role passed a million views. In only a month. A little less than a month, actually.

Needless to say, I’m a happy camper.

Record of Lodoss War came out in 1990, thus taking the crown of the oldest anime I have watched thus far. It was introduced to me as “basically Dungeons & Dragons: The Anime”. And that’s quite true.

Parn is a fighter, and he rushes into things too much. Really, Parn. Running at your enemy while screaming at the top of your lungs works sometimes, but you could at least try something different.

Deedlit is an elf. She uses elementals and spirits to do magic and stuff. She also kinda likes Parn.

Etoh is Parn’s best friend and a cleric priest of Falis.

Slayn is a magician. He has a staff that does stuff.

Ghim is a gruff but lovable dwarf, as dwarves usually are. He has an axe that thinks it’s a boomerang. Try adding -li on the end of his name for giggles.

Woodchuck is a thief. He’s sneaky.

There, you see? It looks like any standard D&D adventuring party.

Though I did have a hard time taking the villain Wagnard seriously. I swear he looks exactly like Evil Spock. Goatee and all.

Record of Lodoss War Abridged 1

*snicker*

GRODONSQUEST

This video wins at EVERYTHING FOREVER.

The Endless Love

Good Vocatrance is good. Very good.

Mozaik Role dropped down to #4 this week. I guess a three-peat was too much to ask for, huh?

Gumi’s older brother Gakupo had the spotlight this week. I didn’t particularly like the song, though… Oh well, that’s just me. His birthday was also on the 31st. I forgot. T_T

In other news, Magnet and Just Be Friends have been taken off of Nico Nico until further notice. (Set to private–not deleted outright) From what I gather, the PV artist has been accused of using stock photos when she was drawing the art, and didn’t pay for the photos. I guess? I don’t know enough details to be able to have any opinion on this. I’ll wait until things settle down a little.

Cromartie High is just about he best darn comedic show I’ve ever seen. Everything in this show seems geared specifically towards me. Rampant randomness, deadpan humor, general awesomeness. The over-the-top dramatic art style only serves to increase its power level.

Takashi Kamiyama has just enrolled in high school. Not just any high school, Cromartie High School. Cromartie is famous for being full of delinquent tough guys. But Takashi, being rather normal, is seen as the toughest guy of all, because only an extremely tough rabbit would lie down in a den of lions.

Shinjiro Hayashida is the first friend that Takashi makes at Cromartie. He has a purple mohawk.

Akira Maeda claims he has never lost a fight, and says he even won a 5-on-1 fight. Everyone ignores him because he lacks a nickname.

Freddie is a suspenders-wearing awesome guy who never talks. He rides to school on a horse.

Gorilla is a… gorilla… who goes to Cromartie. He is smarter than the rest of the guys, and is an excellent sushi chef.

Shinichi Mechazawa is suspected to be a robot. However, nobody besides Takahi and Shinjiro notice, including Mechazawa himself.

HE ATE MY PENCIL!

This was the very first thing I ever saw from Cromartie High. After I saw this, I immediately said, “I. MUST. WATCH. THIS. ANIME.” So I did.

Epic Snail

And so, the snail set out on his fateful journey… To rid the land of the evil slugs that had enslaved most of his people… And avenge his family, whom he didn’t even know whether they were alive or dead…

Stardust Method

Another song showcasing the correct usage of the Appends.

And, uh, well… Mozaik Role (DECO said that’s the correct romanization) got the #1 spot again. That’s like… Way too good to be true. This song will go far.

Yay stars!

Finally. First announced just shy of a year ago, the Black Rock Shooter anime has finally been released.

After that long wait, I was happy to see that the show was not horrible. It was good, and I liked it. But… It was too short! 50 minutes, that’s about the length of two standard anime episodes. (Of course, I knew it was going to be short beforehand, so most of my disappointment was had a few months ago.)

The anime has a slower pace than I would have expected. BRS being an action-y song, after all. A good portion of the show takes place in the “real world”, as opposed the the “BRS world”. However! The BRS scenes are very good, and I quite enjoyed them when they did appear. …Actually, the whole show seemed to be a prequel, setting up for a longer series later that would expand the BRS world. This is pure speculation on my part, and has no basis in any facts, other than my observations when watching the show. But I know I’m right, because I am always right about everything. (Hey! I heard that snickering!)

The music in the show is incredible, which was to be expected, since they got Mr. Ryo himself doing it. The real world music is calming, and the fight music is an epic metal/rock (heh) style. The backgrounds and animation are also top-tier.

Black Rock Shooter Ova – Trailer 2

This is the trailer for it. I’ve watched this a hundred times, so I immediately spotted the shots from the trailer when I watched the show.

This review also marks one full year since starting my column here. It hardly seems that long since I first started on this whole thing… I had watched only five animes when I wrote the review for Lucky Star. Now I stand at thirty-five. (Two of them have yet to have their reviews published.)